Hiroshi Sugimoto: Form Is Emptiness marks the internationally acclaimed artist’s first major survey exhibition in Southeast Asia. Bringing together 63 works from 11 series, alongside 14 fossils from the artist’s personal collection, the exhibition traces five decades of artistic inquiry and sustained conceptual exploration.
The exhibition title draws from a well-known line in the Heart Sutra, a foundational Buddhist text. The phrase “form is emptiness” articulates a profound yet direct insight: nothing exists independently, and we perceive the world in a certain way because of the definitions we have created for ourselves. The tension between appearance and reality has long been central to Sugimoto’s practice.
Although Sugimoto is best known for his photography, his work extends far beyond a single medium, encompassing sculpture, installation, writing, and architectural design. For him, these are not departures from photography but expansions of photographic thinking—ways of distilling and contemplating time and space so that a moment becomes a catalyst for deeper perception.
At the intersection of Buddhist philosophy and scientific inquiry, Sugimoto approaches time not as a fixed measure, but as something open and malleable. He invites viewers to slow down and reconsider the act of seeing itself, which is not passive reception, but an intentional and reflective gesture.
Designed by Sugimoto, the exhibition layout takes the form of a mandala—a circular, geometric figure representing the universe in Hindu and Buddhist symbolism. Rather than a single linear route, paths branch, loop and reconnect, inviting more than one direction of movement.
Visitors are invited to move through the exhibition at their own pace and in their own sequence. In doing so, the spatial experience echoes Sugimoto’s enduring concern: how form and emptiness exist in interdependence, and how understanding gradually emerges through experience rather than relying on predetermined interpretation.
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Brush Impression, 1547, 2024, gelatine silver print, 93.6 x 75 cm. Image courtesy of the artist
about the artist
Hiroshi Sugimoto was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1948. He graduated from Rikkyo University, Tokyo, in 1970 and from the Art Center, Los Angeles, in 1974. He currently splits his time between Tokyo and New York.
A multidisciplinary artist, Sugimoto’s practice encompasses photography, sculpture, installation, architecture, garden design, writing, calligraphy, culinary arts, and directing/producing performing arts. His practice bridges Eastern and Western ideologies while examining the nature of time, perception, and the origins of consciousness.
In 2008, Sugimoto founded the New Material Research Laboratory, an architectural design office that incorporates new uses for traditional materials and techniques. A year later, he established the Odawara Art Foundation, a charitable nonprofit organization to promote traditional Japanese culture and performing arts. In 2017, Odawara Foundation opened Enoura Observatory, a land art complex set between the foothills of Hakone Mountain and Sagami Bay.
related events
check out the line-up of free and ticketed events below!
AUDIO GUIDE
[Audio Guide / Description] See the Silence. Hear the Light: An Accompanied Audio Walk
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2026 - Sun, 4 Oct 2026
Time: 10AM - 7PM
Venue: Level 1, Gallery 1
GUIDED TOUR
Join us on a guided tour and gain insights on artworks presented in Hiroshi Sugimoto: Form Is Emptiness.
Curator Tour
Step into the world of Hiroshi Sugimoto in his first major Southeast Asian showcase. Led by SAM Curators Amy Cheng and Angelica Ong, this tour dives into five decades of artistic inquiry—spanning landmark photography, rare fossils, and architectural design.
Meeting point: Level 1, Gallery 1, SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark
Tickets: Free with registration (general admission fees to exhibition apply)
Scheduled start dates for the tours:
• English tours: from 11 June
• Chinese tours: from 13 June
• Japanese tours: from 2 July
Access Tour (with SgSL)
• Sat, 5 Sep 2026, 3 - 4pm
DROP IN ACTIVITY
[Listening Station] Between Orbits and Sleep by Hiroshi Ebina
Date: 29 May – 4 Oct 2026
Time: 10AM - 7PM (Daily during opening hours)
Venue: Level 1, The Engine Room
[Self-guided Resource] Hiroshi Sugimoto: Form Is Emptiness Mini Guide
Date: June - 4 Oct 2026
Time: 10AM - 7PM (Daily during opening hours)
Venue: Level 1
[SAM&Schools] Bartley Secondary School Artwork Response to Hiroshi Sugimoto: Form Is Emptiness
Date: June - 4 Oct 2026
Time: 10AM - 7PM (Daily during opening hours)
Venue: Level 1
•Full-Time National Servicemen (NSFs) excluding foreign personnel
•Overseas student/teacher
SGD 10
SGD 15
• Children 6 years and below
• Local/locally-based students/teachers
• Person with disabilities (PWD) and their caregiver2
Free.
Not required to purchase a ticket.
Please present valid proof of identity (e.g. NRIC, Student Pass) at SAM's ticketing counter to enjoy free admission.
All ticket prices are inclusive of booking fees 1Valid proof of identity (e.g., passport, school pass) must be presented at the ticketing counter to enjoy concession admission. 2One caregiver accompanying visitors with disabilities will enjoy free admission, regardless of the caregiver's nationality.
Hiroshi Sugimoto: Form Is Emptiness exhibition catalogue
Singapore Art Museum
Softcover, 168pp
Retail Price: S$60 (including GST)
ISBN: 978-981-94-5339-9
Conceived in relation to the exhibition Hiroshi Sugimoto: Form Is Emptiness at the Singapore Art Museum, this catalogue invites readers into the artist’s contemplative world. Through texts by the exhibition curators, Harvard scholar Dr Yukio Lippit, Mori Art Museum director Mami Kataoka and Sugimoto himself, a series of resonances within Sugimoto’s photographic practice unfolds, tracing its dialogue with Buddhist philosophy and cosmology; its intersections with scientific inquiry; its mediation of Sugimoto’s Japanese upbringing and aesthetic sensibilities and his formative years working in 1970s New York City; as well as its allusions to poetic and aesthetic traditions. Spanning more than five decades of work, this publication takes readers through Sugimoto’s enduring investigations into consciousness, time and perception. The texts extend his artistic inquiries, mapping the interplay between form and void, presence and (im)permanence.
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